Widow of highway worker pleads for safety

Karen Burkhalter, wife of highway worker Derrick Burkhalter, who was killed in a crash last year in Calumet County, speaks on highway work-zone safety Tuesday in Menasha as highway workers look on.(Photo: Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

APPLETON - The construction on Racine Road was the backdrop Tuesday for those making an impassioned plea to the public to keep those working on highways and roads safe.

"We have to have the public know that highway workers' lives depend on them," said Karen Burkhalter, whose husband, Derrick, was killed last year while working on a highway project in Calumet County. "They need to slow down. They need to pay attention. And they need to move over. Because of inattentive drivers, too many highway workers are injured or killed. The general public is responsible for this."

In front of her stood 12 orange cones hung with black ribbons, signifying the 12 people killed in work zones in 2015, three of whom were highway workers. She and others spoke as part of Work Zone Awareness Week, which runs through Friday.

Racine Road is part of the $482 million State 441 Tri-County Project, which is back on track after funding became an issue last year, according to the state Department of Transportation. That piece of the 10-part project involves improving alignment to minimize curves along Racine Road, allow full access to 12th Street and construct a roundabout.

The Racine Road portion of the project will reopen this fall, DOT Northeast Region Director Will Dorsey said Tuesday. Around the same time, all traffic will be shifted to the new Little Lake Butte des Morts bridge and the existing bridge will be reconditioned and will open to traffic in 2018, he said.

"Our goal at the Department of Transportation is to reduce the number of fatal and serious injury crashes in work zones to zero," Dorsey said. "As you know, the Wisconsin 441 Tri-County Project, like many others around the state, is a major effort to make our highway transportation system safer and more efficient."

The project is meant to improve safety, spur economic development and reduce traffic congestion. The whole project is slated to be finished in 2021.

The completion of the Interstate 41-U.S. 10/State 441 interchange had been pushed back from 2018 to 2019, but with the funding, the original timeline was reinstated, said Mark Kantola, project communication manager for the DOT.

Construction on the I-41 mainline is expected to occur from 2018 to 2019, according to a DOT project timeline.

"We were going to have to push off some construction timelines for the mainline there, and we were able to reinstate that," Kantola said.

The last piece of the project will be at U.S. 10 and Oneida Street, where crews will create a diverging diamond interchange and reconstruct Oneida Street from Valley Road to Midway Road.

As the work continues to ramp up as the weather improves and spring and summer travels heat up, dangers in work zones become heightened.

On Tuesday, Burkhalter applauded efforts to make work zones safer for workers, including adding temporary rumble strips and bringing attention to the personal responsibility of drivers to make sure highway workers go home at night.

Her husband was 50 when he died May 4, 2015 from injuries suffered a week earlier when the sweeper truck he was driving was rear-ended by a vehicle on U.S. 10 in Calumet County.

"When you see orange, when you hear the rumble strips, just slow down, pull over," she said. "The workers aren't there to ruin your day, make you late, inconvenience you. They're there doing their job, a job that they take pride in. And they should be able to come home from that."

Derek Stempa, 30, of Shawano died May 26 after a van hit him while he was working as a flagman for the Shawano County Highway Department near Gresham.

Marcus Wydeven, 50, died July 14 after he was hit by a car while working as a flagman near Merrill in Lincoln County.

To make work zones safer, DOT will:

Use temporary portable rumble strips on about 12 state highway improvement projects during this year's construction season.

Remind drivers to slow down and pay attention through social media, messages on electronic highway signs, and television and radio broadcasts.

Officers from the Wisconsin State Patrol and other agencies will be patrolling work zones, enforcing speed limits and other traffic laws, according to DOT.

Kantola said an area counts as a work zone any time an emergency vehicle is pulled over to the side of the road with its lights on.

There have been no fatalities in work zones thus far in 2016, DOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb said.

"Just in general, distracted driving is an issue of increasing concern to us in the state and nationally," Gottlieb said. "A work zone is no place to be doing anything other than putting 100 percent of your abilities into the task of driving."

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Traffic flows Tuesday amid construction along State 441 in Menasha. The state Department of Transportation held a press conference near 441 to highlight the need for safe driving practices in work zones.(Photo: Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)